Matthew 23:20 Commentary and Bible Study

The scribes and Pharisees said it is nothing to swear by the altar, and it is nothing to swear by the temple, but God sees things very differently. He holds us to an oath in a way that we may not expect. He sees the true significance of our words; he traced back the oaths of the scribes to the real authority that lay behind them, and did not treat words lightly as they did. All things derive their authority from God, and the only reason that an oath by the altar has significance is that God commanded the altar to be built and he commanded what should live inside it. Within the altar were ‘the golden pot that had manna, and Aaron's rod that budded, and the tables of the covenant’ (Hebrews 9:4) – the two tablets of stone on which were written the ten commandments. The altar represented Christ himself (Hebrews 13:8-10), who has the law within him, and who feeds his people and gives them life from the dead, and therefore no man could swear by it lightly. It was a symbol, and no symbol can be detached from its source. Similarly, the temple was not to be considered in isolation. It was the place where God chose to dwell in symbolic form in ancient Israel. If the scribes wished to minimise the gravity of their oaths by not mentioning the name of God, Christ tells them they have not succeeded. Any reference to the temple is meaningless unless it derives its significance from the one who dwells in it. What, after all, would an oath by the temple be, if God did not dwell in it? It would be an oath by something created, something which had no power to verify the solemn words of the oath taker; it would be an act of superstition.He had not mentioned this before, but neither is an oath by heaven to be taken lightly. Heaven is the location of the throne of God, and it has significance because God sits upon it. In fact all things derive their significance from God. Since all our words are uttered before him, we should not – except on very special occasions (e.g. Matthew 26:63) – swear by anything else, but simply state the truth as we know it.